1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing technology for enlarging/reducing an image displayed on a display or moving the image upward, downward, leftward, or rightward.
2. Description of the Related Art
Home entertainment systems are proposed that are capable of reproducing moving images as well as running game programs. In the home entertainment systems, a GPU generates three-dimensional images using polygons (see, e.g., patent document No. 1).
In recent years, a technology is proposed that is capable of enlarging/reducing a display image or moving the image upward, downward, leftward, or rightward, using tile images of a plurality of resolutions generated from a digital image such as a high-definition photo. In this image processing technology, the size of an original image is reduced in a plurality of stages to generate images of different resolutions so as to represent the original image in a hierarchical structure where the image in each layer is divided into one or a plurality of tile images. Normally, the image with the lowest resolution comprises one tile image. The original image with the highest resolution comprises the largest number of tile images. An information processing device is configured to present an enlarged view or reduced view promptly by switching a currently used tile image to a tile image of a different layer at the time of performing a process of enlarging or reducing a display image.
[Patent document No. 1] U.S. Pat. No. 6,563,999
By enlarging an image of content, a user can check detailed parts of the content. By reducing the image of the content, the user can see the overall balance of the content. Therefore, a tool that allows a content image to be easily enlarged or reduced is important in the evaluation of the content. The user usually desires to use other people's evaluation as a reference at this time. Thus, the development of an application is desired that allows other people's evaluation to be used as a reference and that allows the user's own evaluation to be provided to other people.